Paul Finebaum Says CFB Playoff Byes Need Changing, Because Of...Arizona State?

Paul Finebaum is known for having, uh, strong opinions. Opinions that are very often shaped by an obvious, prolific bias towards the SEC. Something that, despite their denials, is a common feature of much of ESPN's coverage and analysis of college football.

READ: Kirk Herbstreit Says ESPN Doesn't Have An SEC Bias, After Weeks Of ESPN SEC Bias

Finebaum, like many other college football fans and commentators revealed on ESPN's Get Up recently that he disagrees with the automatic bye setup in the current College Football Playoff format. That's a reasonable take, considering it highly values conference champions with potentially less impressive resumes. 

But one of the examples Finebaum used, the Arizona State Sun Devils, shows how much of his opinion is simply based around unjustified superiority.

"I think you have to remember that two of those bye teams really had no business getting byes, and that was the ultimate flaw in the system. Arizona State and Boise State should not have — should have been playing on the road the very first weekend, and we wouldn’t even have this conversation," Finebaum claimed. "But Oregon is an outlier. It has been a problem for that program. It’s been such a great program, but in the big games — last year, of course, twice against Washington and this year, the second game against Ohio State, they really just could not get it done.

"But ultimately, the team that I think that hasn’t been mentioned yet, that deserves the most credit, is Michigan. That win against Ohio State did something to Ryan Day and his program that I can’t explain, but it may be the story of the CFP this year if Ohio State can win it all."

Sports commentator Paul Finebaum.  (Photo by David J. Griffin/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)

Paul Finebaum's Arizona State Criticism Is Unjustified

No one would argue that getting through the 2024 edition of the Big 12 was as difficult as the Big Ten or SEC. But Arizona State played one of the few competitive games of the entire Playoff thus far, and arguably should have won its game against the heavily favored Texas Longhorns.

If not for a disastrous missed targeting call late in the fourth quarter, it's possible that ASU would have won that game before overtime. Georgia, meanwhile, scored a grand total of 10 points against Notre Dame. Finebaum though, has no criticism for Georgia receiving a bye.

There's plenty to criticize thus far about how the seeding has played out; Oregon's reward for an undefeated season was facing an extremely talented Ohio State team with momentum coming off a massive home win against Tennessee. 

But ASU, if anything, showed it deserved to be in the playoff and deserved to be on the same field against one of college football's best teams. Tennessee didn't exactly show the same.